The present invention relates to subscription television and more particularly to a method and system for obtaining billing information regarding programs viewed by a subscriber of a subscription television system.
Since the advent of subscription or pay television, numerous techniques have been devised to bill the subscribers for the service provided. It has been suggested that the subscriber pay for subscription television services on a fixed charge basis, a uniform cost per unit use basis, or on a per program charge basis. More recent systems have adopted the per program basis for billing.
It will be appreciated that a fixed charge or uniform charge per unit basis of billing presents the least problems with regard to recording and calculating billing charges. With a fixed charge system as is used with most cable television or CATV systems, the station operator merely bills the subscriber a fixed amount on a monthly basis.
The uniform per unit use billing involves somewhat more complex procedures since actual viewing time must be recorded and somehow made available to the operator for billing purposes. Moreover, the viewing time must be registered in conjunction with the identity of each subscriber so that an individual subscriber can be billed for his viewing time.
The most complex billing system and yet the most desirable from the standpoint of the subscriber is billing on the basis of actual programs viewed with different charges for different programs. In such a system, the billing entity must know both the identity of the subscriber and the identity of the programs viewed during a billing period.
Several billing systems have been developed in order to charge subscribers to a pay television system on the basis of programs actually viewed. Typical of these types of systems are the coinbox systems that are exemplified by U.S. Pat. No. 3,021,383. In such a system, the subscriber must deposit a certain amount of money in a coinbox attached to the receiver in order to view a particular program. Different programs may be assigned different charges so that, for example, a particular movie may cost less to view than a sporting event. With such a system, payment for the program enables the viewing of a program and payment is thus assured. However, the billing entity (the system operator) must collect the money from the coinboxes on a periodic basis, requiring considerable manpower and also requiring access to the subscriber's home.
Another approach to billing on a per program basis requires the subscriber to place a telephone call to some central location and request the receipt of a particular program. The calling subscriber's equipment is then enabled and charges for the program can be recorded and billed to the calling subscriber. It will be appreciated that such a system may encounter difficulties in large service areas with a large number of subscribers. In addition, the subscriber's telephone must be utilized frequently for this purpose.
Other approaches to the billing problem in pay TV systems include the one of cards or paper tapes that are used at the subscriber location to record viewing information. In a particular system, a card is mailed to the subscriber and is required for operation of the subscriber's receiver. The card is punched or otherwise imprinted at the subscriber location to record program charges and must be mailed or otherwise transmitted to the system operator so that charges may be assessed. Typical of these types of systems are those shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,470,309, 3,475,547 and 3,531,583.
Another type of billing system may be characterized as a real time metering or interrogating system such as that shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,396,232, 3,716,654 and 3,733,430. These systems typically interrogate the receivers or otherwise monitor the status of the receivers on a program by program basis (e.g., through the use of special transducers) to determine if the subscriber is watching a particular program. This information can then be used for billing purposes as well as audience survey purposes and the like.
It can be seen that the foregoing systems suffer from numerous deficiencies including system complexity, enormous time consumption, reliance on subscriber action to receive billing information, and the like. It is accordingly an object of the present invention to obviate the foregoing and other deficiencies of the prior art pay television system billing procedures through the use of a novel method and system for billing on a per program basis with a minimum of complex equipment and a minimum of human intervention.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a novel method and system for obtaining billing information regarding programs actually viewed by a subscriber of a pay television system wherein program identification data is recorded and is accessed on a periodic basis from a central location, thus, eliminating the need for the gathering of the information through the intervention of the system subscriber.
It is yet another object of the present invention to provide a novel method and system for obtaining billing information regarding programs actually viewed by a pay television system subscriber which utilizes a minimum of complex equipment and makes use of existing equipment at the subscriber location including a telephone at the location.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a novel subscriber television system and method in which scramble and program codes are received in the program video signal and are used in conjunction with a telephone access unit to unscramble the received program signal and record program viewing under the control of a central station linked to the access unit over non-dedicated telephone lines.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a novel subscriber television system and method in which the subscriber has the capability to select a program for viewing from among a number of different available programs and selectively prevent the viewing of others of the available programs.
It is yet a further object of the present invention to provide a novel subscriber television system and method in which the length of the billing period can be varied to provide flexibility in the control of programs available to the subscriber.
These and other objects and advantages of the present invention will become apparent to one skilled in the art to which the invention pertains from the following detailed description when read in conjunction with the appended drawings.